Tempered by a number of hard solo climbs in Europe, Auer is now translating these abilities to the great ranges. He will continue his tradition of solo climbing. His only companions will be a cook and a few porters on the lower slopes.

Auer has previously summited the 7,000-er Kunyang Chhish East, also in the Karakorum, with his brother in 2013. This expedition sparked his interest in returning to the region. A German team first climbed Lupghar Sar in 1979, but Auer says that there has been no recorded activity on the mountain since 2000. He intends to climb the peak’s west face.

Hansjörg Auer during a break on the way to Masherbrum in Pakistan, 2014. Photo: Manuel Ferrigato

Auer told ExWeb that his original intention was to climb a different mountain in the region, Khurdopin Sar, but that his climbing partner for that attempt fell ill. Speaking to PlanetMountain, Auer gave a fascinating insight into the mindset required for solo climbing in the highest mountains on earth:

There is a big difference between setting off alone from home and soloing a mountain, to going on an expedition with others and then soloing … because a partner is unwell, or whatever. Sometimes 80% of the time during an expedition you’re not actually climbing. When you have a team of friends with you, it’s easier to deal with that time off … But now I won’t be able to count on my friends … This lends the project a very special taste. If I’m honest… this is a taste I’m always looking for somehow.

Auer built his reputation by his impressive solo climb of the south face of the Marmolada in the Italian Dolomites, his first ascents in Patagonia, and his 2013 first ascent of Kunyag Chhish East (7,400 m), which was considered one of the last great problems of the Karakorum.

The Spring 2018 Himalaya season has come to a close, and it has been one of the busiest ever. Here are the storylines that have defined the season: the conditions, the successes, and the tragedies.

Weather

A sea of clouds as seen from Dhaulagiri. Photo: Carlos Soria

Spring is the best time of year to climb in the Himalaya, but this does not guarantee safety from avalanches, crevasses, rapid temperature drops, and high winds.

This year, Everest and Lhotse were blessed with unusually stable weather. The jet stream, a band of very strong winds from 9-16km above sea level, hit the Himalaya on May 7. Everest expeditions were forced to wait at lower elevations, and the Icefall Doctors had to wait until May 10 to continue fixing ropes to the summit. Nevertheless, by May 14 they had completed the set lines on both the Nepalese and Tibetan sides of the mountain. From May 13 till May 24, the weather on Everest remainedrelatively calm, leading to a highly unusual 11 straight summit days, and likely a new record for Everest summits in one season.

Teams elsewhere in the Himalaya were not so lucky. Expeditions on Dhaulagiri reported consistent snowfall around Base Camp and Camp 1, hampering progress and leading to a long wait for conditions to improve. Of the 26 climbers hoping to summit Dhaulagiri, not one succeeded. The most promising weather was predicted to begin on May 18, and a number of teams stationed themselves at Camp 3 for a summit push. However, strong winds battered the upper reaches of the mountain, forcing teams at Camp 3 to share tents and eventually turning everyone back.

Kanchenjunga had not been scaled in three years, and while this year saw a sprinkling of successes, bad weather made the climb exceptionally difficult. The first summit pushes on Kanchenjunga began on May 15, with a handful of summits by those with supplemental oxygen on May 16. Those climbing without oxygen were halted by bitter cold and deep snow.

Carlos Soria returned to Dhaulagiri, a mountain that has proven his most consistent foil. Over the years, he had attempted to scale the peak eight times, without success.

On April 22, the eternally fit 79-year-old began his ninth attempt. Soria spent weeks waiting at base camp for conditions to settle. Finally, favourable weather was forecast for May 17-18. But as in 2017, when he had to retreat just 100m from the summit, the mountain did not cooperate with Soria’s plans. Strong winds and abruptly deteriorating weather halted his team at Camp 3 and forced them to descend to base camp to minimize exposure.

Two teams aimed for an Everest-Lhotse traverse. Romanian Horia Colibasanu and Slovak Peter Hamor tried to open an ambitious new traverse via the West Ridge, without bottled oxygen. Tenji Sherpa planned to go via the South Col, in memory of his late climbing partner, Ueli Steck.

Both traverses were ultimately unsuccessful. Tenji managed to summit Everest via the South Col route, but he elected not to attempt the traverse to Lhotse. Colibasanu and Hamor had to abandon their expedition on Everest because of deep snow along a couloir leading to the West Ridge.

In an attempt to to bag Lhotse, Everest and Nuptse in a single season, Singaporean hedge-fund manager and ultra-marathon runner Leow Kah Shin hired a private team from Adventure Consultants, led by Guy Cotter. He and Cotter didn’t quite make the Triple Crown, but managed two out of three — a fair haul. They climbed Lhotse and Everest in just over 24 hours, beginning on May 16. Earlier, they had abandoned their Nuptse push due to high winds and heavy snow.

In one of the most inspiring stories of the season, 70-year-old double amputee Xia Boyu managed to summit Everest, 43-years after his tragic first attempt. On that early expedition, the Chinese climber suffered severe frostbite, ultimately losing both his legs.

Boyan Petrov was an experienced mountaineer with ten 8,000m peaks to his name. Photo: Boyan Petrov

Bulgarian climber Boyan Petrov planned to climb Shishapangma, then move on to Everest. He set off for the summit of Shishapangma, alone and without supplemental oxygen, on April 29. It seems likely that Petrov made an attempt at the summit from Camp 3, where he was last seen via telescope from Base Camp on May 3. He then disappeared. Bad weather set in, and after a delay, the search team uncovered just a few traces of Petrov: his tent at Camp 3, and a few belongings, including a T-shirt, insulin medication and energy gels. Kiril Petkov, a close friend of Petrov, was helping with the search and speculates that the climber may have fallen into a crevasse between Camp 3 and the summit. But unless more evidence turns up, we can’t know for sure what became of the experienced Bulgarian mountaineer.

Kami Rita Sherpa made yet another trip to the top of the world, summiting Everest a record 22nd time. Meanwhile, 44-year-old Lhakpa Sherpa bested her own record for successful female ascents. Already the woman’s record holder with eight Everest summits, she reached her ninth on May 16 from the North Col on the Tibetan side of the mountain.

Safety

The notoriously dangerous Khumbu Icefall. Photo: Mingma Gyalje Sherpa

The season started with an early fatality on Dhaulagiri. Italian alpinist Simone La Terra died at Camp 3 after his tent was blown away by strong winds.

Fortunately, this early tragedy did not signal a trend. Fatalities remained fairly low, largely due to the calm weather on Everest. However, the volume of climbers has continued to rise, and inevitably there have been some deaths. Five have been reported on Everest for the season, one fewer than in 2017.Of those fatalities, three were Sherpa: Damai Sarki fell into a crevasse near Camp 2 on the Nepal side, Pasang Norbu died near to the summit after suffering a stroke, and Lam Babu died in unclear circumstances on the way down from the summit while supporting a cryptocurrency stunt. Two international climbers perished; Macedonian Gjeorgi Petkov from a heart attack on the Nepalese side, and the Japanese climber Nobukazu Kuriki, who was found dead in his tent while trying to descend from Camp 3.

Lhotse and Shishapangma each recorded one death. On Lhotse, Russian climber Rustem Amirov died from acute altitude sickness near to the summit. Experienced Bulgarian mountaineer Boyan Petrov disappeared on Shishapangma. His body has not been found.

Exact statistics are still being compiled by the Himalayan Database, but this season will likely be the busiest ever. Everest saw at least 700 successful summits, substantially more than the current record of 665 set in 2013. Large commercial expeditions climbed on both the Nepalese and Tibetan sides of the mountain, with 11 straight fair-weather days allowing most clients to summit successfully.

Along with the new records for male and female Everest ascents, we also witnessed a new Seven Summits time record. Australian Steve Plain topped Everest on May 14, successfully climbing the highest peak on each continent in just 117 days.

Back in October of 2016, alpinists Nick Bullock and Paul Ramsden made the historic first ascent of a 7046-meter (23,116 ft.) peak in Tibet called Nyainqentangala along the Southeast Face. This section of the mountain had rarely been visited and the valley that surrounds it largely unexplored. But the two men went anyway on what would be their first major expedition together. It took them seven days to complete the ascent along the mountain’s North Buttress, earning them a Piolet d’Or in the process. This video takes us along on that expedition, giving us a glimpse of what it was like to climb in alpine style on this massive and very difficult mountain. It was quite a challenge to say the least.

The 2018 spring climbing season in the Himalaya has come to an end at long last. It looks like it has been a record breaking year in the big mountains, particularly on Everest where an unprecedented weather window made for hundreds of successful summits. But now, the weather has shifted once again, bringing the curtain down on what will likely be seen as one of the most successful mountaineering seasons of all time.

So just how successful wast he 2018 spring climbing season? According to Alan Arnette, there were perhaps as many as 715 summits on Everest from the North and South Sides of the mountain. That easily beats the previous record set in 2013 of 667 summits. While this isn’t an official number by any means, Alan follows the climbing scene very closely and keeps track of dozens of summit reports. At this time, he estimates that 476 climbers reached the summit from the Nepali side of the mountain, while an additional 239 went up on the Tibetan side.

Those are some big numbers anyway you look at it and the high success rate this year is directly attributable to the 11 days of good weather that created the perfect environment for the teams to get up and down the mountain safely. This provided plenty of time for everyone to schedule their ascents, avoiding overcrowding on the summit and long traffic jams on the approach to the top. In a typical year, the weather window is usually on three or four days in length, which would cause all of the teams to crowd into the same space. This year, there was plenty of time for all of the teams to go up at their leisure.

Yesterday we reported that there was one team still on the South Side of the mountain as Tenji Sherpa and Jon Griffiths summited Everest and were proceeding directly to Lhotse for a double-summit attempt. It turns out, the duo elected to pull the plug on the Lhotse attempt and have now headed back to Base Camp. It seems likely that they’ll be breaking camp today or tomorrow and heading home. The weather has now shifted and high winds have hit the region, shutting off the summits of the big Himalayan peaks until fall.

On the North Side, Rupert Jones Warner was set to attempt his second summit of Everest this season after having already completed a summit from the South Side back on May 17. He and his team launched their summit bid yesterday but upon reaching the North Col there was no oxygen to be found there. That scuttled their plans and sent them back down the mountain, where BC is all but deserted. With no one to borrow oxygen from, they were forced to pull the plug as well.

From the sounds of things, the Base Camps on both sides of Everest will be empty by this weekend. Poor weather has moved in and the monsoon will soon follow. That means we won’t see too many major Himalayan climbing expeditions until fall and Everest is likely to be abandoned until next spring. It has been one hell of a busy season on the Big Hill. I’m not sure what it can do for an encore in 2019, but we’ll be around to find out.

It continues to be an interesting and busy spring season in the Himalaya, where teams are now steadily filing in to Base Camp on both sides of Mt. Everest as they begin the long process of acclimatization. As reported last week, the Icefall Doctors have completed the route through the Khumbu Icefall on the South Side, and the way is now clear for teams to go all the way up to Camp 2. Meanwhile, on the North Side, the teams are getting settled and shuttling gear to Advanced Base Camp further up the mountain.

Typically it takes a few days for most of the teams to get settled into place and a rest is often in order prior to beginning the actual climb. The first few days in BC are often spent polishing climbing skills and taking short hikes around the area, before setting a schedule to move further up the mountain. On the Nepali side of Everest, a number of teams will make their first acclimation rotation on another nearby peak, thus limiting the number of times the teams have to pass through Khumbu Icefall.

Ahead of the start of true climbing operations on Everest comes some interesting news of things we can expect in the days and weeks ahead this year. For example, I conducted an interview with Alpenglow owner and head guide Adrian Ballinger last week that was posted over at Gear Junkie. In that interview, Ballinger talked about a wide array of topics, but especially his plans for this season. Adrian will lead a team of climbers on a potential Himalayan double-header, making rapid ascents of both Cho Oyu and Everest. To do this, he and the other members of the team have been acclimating prior to leaving for Tibet by using oxygen tents back home, a process that has proven to be very successful in recent years.
Beyond that, Ballinger also told me that he would be climbing with bottled oxygen this year. The past two seasons he concentrated on getting a no-O’s summit of Everest, making that dream a reality in 2017. But, he says that he didn’t enjoy those climbs and remembers very little of the expeditions on the top third of the mountain. This year, it will be like discovering the route all over again. In the interview, he also shares his thoughts on low cost operators, the evolving environment on Everest, and much, much more. It is definitely worth a read and you can check it out here.

Ballinger isn’t the only one going for two summits this season, as two other squads are looking to complete an Everest-Lhotse traverse. The first of those will be attempted by Tenjing Sherpa, who wants to complete that expedition in memory of his climbing partner Ueli Steck, who perished in the Himalaya while preparing for that climb last year. The duo of Horia Colibasanu and Peter Hamor are also looking to make the same climb. Meanwhile, Willie Benegas and Matt Moniz will also attempt an Everest-Lhotse double-summit, but not the traverse.

There will be plenty of other good stories to follow in the days ahead, including some interesting climbs taking place on other peaks throughout the region. For now though, most of the teams are just finding their place and haven’t even truly begun their expeditions yet. Stay tuned for more updates in the days ahead.

The 2018 Himalayan climbing season is still ramping up, but we’re starting to learn about some important stories that we’ll be watching closely in the weeks to come. Yesterday I shared a report that a Chinese double-amputee will attempt to climb from the South Side this spring, and today we have news that two Sherpas are aiming for impressive summit records for both male and female climbers on Everest.

The Himalayan Times is reporting that both Kami Rita Sherpa and Lhakpa Sherpa will both attempt to break their own records for most ever summits on the world’s highest peak. Both are departing for Base Camp soon with the hopes of reaching the top at some point this spring. If they are successful, it will be the 22nd time on top of the mountain for Kami Rita and the 9th time for Lhakpa.

For Kami Rita, this would break a tie that he currently holds with Apa Sherpa and Phurba Tashi Sherpa, but even if successful he says he won’t be done yet. He tells The Times that he wants to climb Everest 25 times before his career is done. He is 48 years old and made his first summit at the age of 24. He also has successful expeditions to K2, Cho You, Lhotse, and Annapurna on his resume too.

For her part, Lhakpa stands alone amongst women climbers with 8 summits to her name already. But this year she hopes to extend that streak to 9. She first climbed Everest back in 2000. The mother-of-three is expected to arrive in Kathmandu (she lives in the U.S.) on April 6 and will begin making her way to EBC shortly there after. She hopes to climb the mountain at least 10 times across her career as well.

Most climbers are lucky to ever get one shot at climbing Everest, and those that do usually don’t want to go through it again. Obviously it is a job for these two Sherpas, but they also have to want to continue climbing to go back so many times. They clearly have a passion for Everest, and we’ll see them back on the mountain again this spring. Hopefully they’ll both reach the summit once again.

The article is written for someone who doesn’t necessarily know a lot about mountaineering in general, or Everest specifically. It answers basic questions like how tall is the mountain and how do you even get there? It tackles tougher issues such as how many people die on the mountain each year and how many summit too. It also talks about the costs involved, explains who the Sherpas are, and delves into the challenges of making the climb too.